Reviews: A personal recollection

I once taught Old Doc Rivers with a literature professor who didn't want to use it because she felt it was not a ‘good’ story, that is, it didn't meet the English professor's definition of whatever ‘good’ is — well constructed but soulless, I suppose. In any case, I prevailed, and the story continues to upset/challenge/reveal and humble all of us who have practiced for any period of time. One student said to me, ‘I might THINK those things but I would NEVER say them’. Williams did both and going on 90 years later, we still avert our eyes yet remain transfixed at the story of the enormously complex person that lies at the heart of the poor and despairing community who held Rivers to them because he was ‘the beloved scapegoat of their own aberrant desires’. Williams was fierce and tender — a tough combination. The book that contains the story is titled The Knife of the Times, a title which says everything.